Trusting God in a Deceitful World - Numbers 13

1:13And it was interesting when he came to us, he presented us with the opportunity to help him. He didn't need any money. He just wanted us to help him to start an orphanage to take care of some kids and start a Bible school to train them up in God's Word. They had the money. They just didn't have the experience to train others. Everything sounded really good about him. So we wanted him to share his testimony with us to find out what was he really up to. Is this a man that really knows Christ? We wanted him to share his sort of a doctrinal statement with us. What does he believe? And so he shared his testimony. He sounded sincere. The words that he used seemed to be plausible that he was a believer, but there just wasn't something right about this man. Just after a few comments that he had given us, I thought something's not correct about him and this Pioneer Caribbean team that he was representing. And so we decided to do some more research on him. We looked up his name on the internet. We looked up the pioneer Caribbean team on the internet and scarcely found a word about anything about him or his pioneer Caribbean team. We decided to look up his phone number. And the phone number wasn't tied to a phone. It was tied to a calling card. Well, that was a little interesting.

2:31Shortly thereafter, the FBI contacted us and said that he's one of their ten most wanted at that period of time. Sad thing is, is that he'd been presenting the same pitch to several other churches, and by the end of his pitch, he had brought in several hundred thousands of dollars into his coffers, embezzling them from churches duped into thinking that they could help serve him and his group. At first, I have to be honest, many of the people in our church, including those of us on the elder board, thought he really had some good ideas and we wanted to help. And as he presented more of the ideas, more of the people wanted to go to Jamaica and be a part of his plan. But, alas, he was a deceptive man. He lied to the congregation. We, thankfully, through the FBI, were warned about him. I would say that about 3,400 years ago, there was another deceptive lie, a malicious deception that took place with the nation of Israel, took place against God's people, and it changed the course of history, even down to our day, probably. There was a lie that took place that caused all the people ages 20 and older, to die in the desert because they believed in this malicious manufacturing of a fable. These Israelites, you see, they found more comfort in the misery that they had in Egypt as slaves than they found in following God's plan for their life. They would rather die back in Egypt than to take God up on his plan to take over the land that he promised.

4:13They actually preferred dying underneath the hand of evil Pharaoh than fulfilling God's plan for their life and taking over their promised land. It was a preference that they wanted. Kind of reminds me of Jesus' presentation to Nicodemus. In John 3, 19, the people there preferred to love darkness rather than to love the light. These people preferred to go back to the comfort of Pharaoh and his slave masters than to be with God's people in the land of the wilderness.

4:50Church, we mustn't fall prey to the tactics of malicious lies in our world today. We mustn't allow that to happen. There are those who would look into our ranks and try to deceive us into thinking that there's something in the scripture or something about God that isn't true. And we were warned about that in scripture. They were warned that this could happen to them, and so they gave into it anyway. Let's dive into our text. I want you to join with me in Numbers chapter 13, verse 25, and I just want to read several verses here to put this in context of where we're heading with today's passage, and so you can see what's going on with this deception here. Starting off in verse 25, Moses writes these words. When they returned from spying out the land at the end of 40 days, they proceeded to come to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Paran at Kadish, and they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. Thus they told them and said, quote, We went into the land where you sent us, and it certainly does flow with milk and honey, and this is its fruit, as they hold up a bunch of fruit, probably grapes. Verse 28. Nevertheless, the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified with moreover, we saw descendants of Anak there. Amalek is living in the land of the Negev, and the Hittites and the Jebusites, and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan. Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it. But the men who had gone up with him said, We're not able to go up against these people, for they are too strong for us.

6:54So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report, that's putting it lightly, a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone in spying out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, are a part of the Nephilim. And we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

7:24Chapter 14, verse 1. Then all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and the people wept that night. All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation and said to them, Quote, would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would that we had died in this wilderness? Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder. Would it be better for us to return to Egypt? And then verse 30, I won't read it, but verse 30 talks about how God pronounces judgment on them and that they would be wandering in the land for 40 years.

8:07This section of Scripture really demonstrates three things for us today so that we can trust in God in a deceitful world. Here they are. Number one, receiving the benefits of God's promises requires courageous trust in God so that we can act according to his purposes. That's verse 30. Number two, recognize that man-centered philosophies are at odds with the Bible. And number three, acting on deceptive information results in rebellion against God and then subsequent judgment. Now, because we're jumping into the middle of a book, I just need to lay the foundation a little bit more than I would normally do in a message. So just bear with me on a little bit longer introduction here until we dig into the text. It's just so important to understand what's going on here. You see, the book of Numbers details all the activities taking place from about the Time just after Israel left Egypt on their exodus out from the land, and just prior to them taking over the land promised to their patriarchs. Numbers 13 and 14 is really a turning point for God's chosen people. It's a turning point for them. In these two chapters, Israel is faced with believing God's promises or simply rejecting God's covenant with Abraham. They can believe him or they can reject him by high-handedly refusing his promises. That's what they're faced with here. You see, God makes a covenant with Abraham. And he tells them, quote, to your descendants, I have given this land from the river Egypt as far as the river Euphrates. Now, that's a lot of property. It's found in Genesis 15. God promises Abraham that to his descendants, that his descendants will be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. And that happened. The people are no longer enslaved, and they're in the wilderness, about ready to take on the land. This enslavement, it takes place in Egypt. And yet, God, true to his promise in Genesis 15, judges Egypt with terrible plagues. You know the story. He decimates Pharaoh's army. In a mere 25 months, think about it, a mere 25 months, boom, the book of Numbers begins. 19 days after the opening of Numbers, Israel sets out on a journey, just as they'd planned to, just as God had planned for them. A journey to take over the land that God promised to them. About four months later, Israel reaches the heartbreaking events that we just read about in Numbers chapter 13 and 14. We see in Numbers 13 that the nation of Israel is on the very precipice of taking God's promises, taking the land. And during the four-month journey, the people grumble for lack of meat. Pretty silly, isn't it? God had brought them through so much. They grumble for lack of meat, lack of fish. They're ungrateful for the bread from heaven that God gives to them every day. God gives them so much meat, the text tells us that it actually comes out of their nostrils. A word picture for how much meat they had in Numbers 11, 20. That's a word picture for you, isn't it? Think about that. Not too flattering. It gets worse. A short time later, Moses, his brother and sister, what do they do? They grumble about Moses' leadership. We don't like this guy's leadership. We'd rather go back to Pharaoh. We like his leadership. And God judges them. God judges his sister, gives her leprosy for speaking against the man that God had chosen to lead the people. I want you to think about it. These are the actual people, the exact same people who experienced the slavery under Pharaoh. Witnessed the ten plagues against Egypt. They were there when the death angel passed over all their firstborn and not the firstborn to the rest of the land. Their sons were spared.

12:14I want you to see something very important about this particular people. Just focus on who they are while standing on dry ground in the Red Sea. The water is standing on edge. for them as they walk through dry ground. Not even a mud puddle that they step in. And they can look up this cliff of water, and it's like a waterfall that doesn't fall. They see this, and it's time for them to take over the promised land, and they don't remember what God brought them through.

12:50They're observing what goes on here. How is it that we reach Numbers 13 and they don't remember what happened 29 months earlier? 29 months is not very long. Just for a moment, I'd like for you to taste what they tasted. They got the bread of heaven. God gave them bread from heaven. God gave them water gushing from rocks. He gave them a cloud by day to guide their path. He gave them a fire by night to tell them where to go.

13:20Just like us, he tells us where to go. He gives us our scriptures. He gives us the Bible. All we have to do is open it and read it. All they had to do is remember what God had done. Through the book of Leviticus, God gives them instructions on godly living. You see, all their needs are met every step of the way. They must continue trusting in God under extremely difficult circumstances. We have difficult circumstances in our lives, no doubt. They did too. Let's not forget what God has brought us through as he takes us through even more difficult circumstances.

13:58Stay with me. I want you to stay with me. We're still in the introduction here, but part of the introduction is looking at Scripture as it gives different angles of approach to what happens in Numbers 13. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 1. In Deuteronomy chapter 1, it's a parallel account of what happens in Numbers 13. We're just going to see a little bit different angle of what's happening here. You see, eventually Israel reaches these events that are recorded in Deuteronomy 1. As we read the passage, I want you to try to imagine that you're there. You're there with Israel as Moses tells the nations about the steps that they have to take to go in and realize this promise that God had given to Abraham. Let's start off in verse 19.

14:54Verse 19 says this. Then we set out from Horeb and went through all the great and terrible. Wilderness, which you saw on the way to the hill country of the Amorites, just as the Lord our God had commanded us, so we came to Kadish Barnea. I said to you, this is Moses speaking, you have come to the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is about to give to us. See, he says, look at it. The Lord your God has placed us, placed the land before you. He says, go up, take possession. He says, go up, take possession. That's the direction. As the Lord, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you, do not fear or be dismayed. What do they have to do to take the land? They have to go up and they have to take it.

15:43Reminds me of what the Lord says about salvation. Take it. It's yours. You don't have to earn it. Don't be afraid. Don't be scared of the land. He says, just go and take it. So God, at God's bidding, every man, woman, and child, what do they do? They jump to their feet. They rush into the land and they take it and they live there happily ever after, right? No, they don't. Look what happens in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 22. Here's what Moses said. Then all of you, can you just see him pointing to the nation? Then all of you approached me and said, Let us send men before us that we may search out the land. For us, and bring back word of the way by which we should go up and the cities which we shall enter. So Moses says this, and this thing sounds pleasing to me. And I took twelve of your men, one man from each tribe. You say, wait a minute, whose idea was the spies? Didn't God just say, go take the land? It's pretty simple. Well, who said to take spies?

16:58Whose idea is this? God had already scouted out the land. He knew what would happen. This is the first crack in the ice of disaster for this nation. First big crack. Moses approved of the congregation's plan and therefore was condemned with the people in the desert when it didn't work out the way that they planned. Well, I said this would be a long introduction, and it certainly was. Let's turn over to Numbers 13 again as we begin to develop this text a little more clearly on what happened with this evil or wicked report. We'll start off in verse 30 again. I just want to read 30 one more time to get a clear understanding.

17:40Again, we're looking at receiving the benefits God promises requires courageous trust. And so we see Caleb with courageous trust. Verse 30, then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it. There's courage. Caleb wants to go. He wants to go. I want you to see how this unfolds. The entire congregation, probably a couple of million people, doubted God, but Caleb and Joshua did not doubt God. You say, well, how did they know to trust God? How did they know that they should just go and take the land without spies? Well, remember, Deuteronomy 1, they took Moses' word for it. Moses said, go, take the land. God said, go, take the land.

18:31He said, watch, the Lord your God is about to give us the land. Go up and take possession. Reminds me, just a story in my own life, in my own family. My son David was given a Fulride scholarship through the U.S. Air Force to the University of Kentucky. Go Cats. Basketball, not football, sorry. Basketball. So he was given this Fulride Scholarship. I'm thinking to myself, okay, we've got to go down and talk to these people. My dad used to always tell me, if it sounds too good to be true, it's too good to what? Be true. And so that's what I'm thinking about this Fulride Scholarship. But as David and I are sitting on the other side of the table from Major Hedge, who's describing this whole scholarship plan, everything sounded legitimate to me. It all sounded good. But I still couldn't believe what I was hearing. This kid's going to get $130,000 worth of education for free. They're going to pay him every single month several hundred dollars to study and get good grades. It sounds too good to be true.

19:30I just knew they were going to be asking for a checkbook at any moment. I had it with me, had my pen there, ready to sign. But since I earned a living as a negotiator, I knew that I better not bring that topic up first because he who talks first loses. Well, being the savvy negotiator I am, I just decided to sort of take a backdoor approach to my questions to him. And I just said, well, what's the next step? He looks at me and he looks at David and he's like, what don't you get? He says, just sign the agreement. Well, there's got to be more to it, but it was a free gift. There was nothing else to it. Oh, sure, he has to serve for five years, but that's him, not me. No, I'm just kidding. But there is something to it. All he had to do was take the scholarship. I felt like I needed to send out spies to find out what the real deal was. Somebody tell me the real deal. What's really going to happen with this scholarship? That's not what happened. You see, Caleb testifies without any hint of hesitation in verse 30 at all. His utter confidence in God's promises to possess the land because God said you can possess the land.

20:37So I don't know what kind of hardships you might be facing, even in your life today, the things that you're going through where you need just utter confidence in him to receive God's promises. But I can assure you, his promises are ironclad. You can trust him for everything that he says he's going to do. He never promised us a life of ease, void of difficult decisions. Not at all. But he did promise us that he would never give us more than we could handle.

21:06Be comforted. Jesus says, I will never forsake you. I will never leave you. The ways in which God has been faithful to you in your life, like he was in Israel's life, is proof that he will be faithful in the future. We must trust him to fulfill his promises. Which really brings us to our second point in understanding how to trust God in a deceit-filled world. Number two, recognize that man-centered philosophies are at odds with the Bible. Man-centered philosophies are at odds with the Bible. You see, you mustn't be deceived in forsaking God's promises. Don't give up while pursuing his plan in your life. I want you to see how this unfolds in the text. In verse 31, we read these words. But, but, the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against this people, for they're too strong for us. The word but really indicates that the ten of the twelve spies were diametrically opposed to Caleb trusting God.

22:11When you trust God, expect opposition in your lives. It's just going to happen. When you trust God, there is going to be opposition in your lives. You might see it in your own family. You might see it in your friends. As college students, you're going to see it in your classes. So here's their testimony: Caleb and God are wrong. That's what they're saying. We can't take the land. They're too strong for us. We're too weak. The we and the us in verse 31 refer to the entire nation. These are ten guys making a decision for the entire nation, saying, We're not able.

22:46Amazing, isn't it? You got 12 guys opposed to God, and they deceive an entire nation, the nation of Israel, into distrusting the one who they watched part the Red Sea. He fed them, he hydrated them, he led them. It gets worse. It gets worse in verse 32. Verse 32, we read these words. So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone and spying it out is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size.

23:25Bad report. Bad report, as I said earlier, is putting it lightly. This was an evil report. This was a wicked report, a rumorous, defaming, slanderous report. Literally, this is a wicked report maliciously designed to intentionally deceive the people into doubting God. That's what it was designed for. It was designed to get a bunch of people, the whole nation, on their side so they wouldn't have to go into the land. The lie led them to declare in chapter 14, verse 11. Verse 2: That they would rather die in Egypt than to travel to the promised land. So much for courage.

24:08The spies said that the land devours its people. Again, this is a slanderous report, and it is seen as a contradiction of the spies in their testimony in verse 27. They testified that the land certainly flows with milk and honey, just like God said, Let's go in, let's take it. But when called on for obedience, they backpedal. They backpedal, and they say, the land devours its people. It's like they're too strong. They're too tall. We must quit. We can't go in. Well, they've got some more deceiving to do. So they use one particular word twice that's only been used once in the entire Old Testament before this. It's a word that's only used three times in the entire Old Testament to make their point.

24:59Look at verse 33. There also we saw the Nephilim. There it is. That's the second time this word is used in the Old Testament. The sons of Anak are a part of the Nephilim. There's the third time it's used in the Old Testament. And we became like grasshoppers in our own sight. And so they were in our sight. They saw the Nephilim, huh? You say, Nephilim? Weren't there only eight people that made the Way on the ark. The Nephilim aren't one of them. The Nephilim did not make it onto the ark. The Nephilim, they died in the flood. This is a wicked report, and they're trying to convince an entire nation not to take a plan of action that God had given them.

25:49No doubt they saw some tall people. There were some tall people there. But so what? God said, Don't be afraid, take the land, it's yours. Two things are going on in verse 33. You see, in order for the ten spies to get the rest of Israel to oppose God, Caleb and Caleb, they must first belittle their own size. They said, We appeared like grasshoppers in our own sight against these guys. So they magnified the size of the people, the so-called Nephilim, who died in the flood, to make it look like that they were little tiny people. Rather than trust God and take over the land, the Israelites trusted a downright slanderous, wicked, evil report.

26:38Lest we point our fingers at them, Americans, might I remind you that there was one particular testimony from one particular woman who changed the course of history for our nation. She lied in a court of law. One of the best-known wicked lies ever perpetrated on the United States was from one named Norma McCorvey. You best know her as Roe v. Wade. McCorvy testified under oath that her pregnancy was the result of a violent rape and that she should have every legal right to take the life of that baby. Since that decision of hers to lie, since Roe v. Wade, 55 million or more abortions have occurred in our nation.

27:26World Health Organization says that there's at least 3,000 abortions per day in our nation. Snuffed out because of a lie. Because she didn't tell the truth. This generation that embraced Norma McCorvey's lie is the same generation today that is concerned that their social well-being is not taken care of or won't be taken care of. Social Security won't be there for them, and it won't be there for them because there's not enough people that pay their way. They ended their lives. This is what a lie does.

28:02And before I start shaming Norma McCorvey for a lie or our nation, I would say this: praise God for his forgiveness. Praise God for his forgiveness because she became a believer in Jesus Christ and was forgiven of that lie. God forgave me, and God forgives you. For what are you longing for the Lord in your own life? What prevents you from? Completely giving all your cares over to Him so that He can give you the plan in your life that He has for His own choosing. Is it people? Is it possessions? Is it fear? Whatever it is, you have no basis upon which to mistrust God at all, He'll bring you through. Tragically, the Israelites refused to lean on God's promises and allowed their erratic emotions to make decisions for them.

29:02There's a third way to trust God in a deceit-filled world, and that's it, and that's this: acting on deceptive information results in rebellion against God and judgment. We see that in chapter 14, verses 1 through 4. We've just read that. You see, believing deceptive information leads us to deny God's past, to deny God's present, and to deny God's future provision, and to reject God's shepherds that He's placed in our lives. And we see that in all, essentially, all of chapter 14. As a result of believing the trickery of the spies, Numbers 4:1 tells us that the nation did three things. You can see it there in the text. First, they lifted up their voices, they wept. Second, they cried, and they wept all night long because they'd rather sit with Pharaoh and his nation and let Pharaoh cause them to be slaves. The whole nation is saying, What on earth have we done?

30:0029 months ago, we left Pharaoh and we came here to the desert. We're going to die in this desert at the hands of the Nephilim. They're scared of tall people in this wilderness. They wailed, they cried, and they wept. They got angry with Moses. They got angry with Aaron. And worst of all, they got angry with God, pointed their fingers at him, and said, You did this. We want to go back simply because of these ten, you'll be familiar with these words if you were here a couple of weeks ago, Sunday morning, these ten troublesome meddlers.

30:41Same things that they shouldn't have said, who maliciously misrepresented the truth with an evil, wicked, manipulative report. Remember, 1 Peter 4:15, Peter writes, he says, This, make sure that none of you suffers as a troublesome meddler. The troublesome meddler strategy, it worked for these ten spies. It worked quite well. They deceived an entire nation into rejecting Moses, into rejecting Aaron, to rejecting God Himself as their leader. In verse 4, in chapter 14, they decided the best plan was to become a democracy and elect their own leader to take them back to Pharaoh and the comfort of his nation.

31:24Notice what happens next in chapter 14, verse 5 and following. Follow along with me. It says, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel. They're going to beg them not to do their plan of action. Verse 6: Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunah, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes, and they spoke to all the congregation, the sons of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to spy out is exceedingly good land. If the Lord is pleased with us, then he will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey, only do not rebel against the Lord. Do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them. But all the congregation said to stone them with stones. Let's kill Moses, let's kill Aaron. Then the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel. Uh-oh.

32:33I've got a problem here. The consequences of rejecting God was for the whole nation to spend a year in the desert for every day that they spent spying out the land. Thus, 40 years of wilderness wandering before God delivered their sons and their daughters into the promised land, all because they believed a wicked report. You say, well, This happened a long time ago, Eric. How on earth does this apply to me today in the year 2014? How does it apply to us in this room? We're not under the same circumstances as Israel today. We're not looking to take over land or take people out. I'm not one of the ten malicious spies. I'm not one of those who believed a malicious report. I haven't signed my life over to deceptive teachers like they did. So, how does this apply to me in my life? I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 as we uncover what Paul says about how this applies to our life. I can't think of a better way to describe to you how these things happened or why they happened to Israel and how their experience applies to us in our own lives. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 1. I'm just going to read several verses here.

33:58Paul describes what happened back in those days and how it applies to us. He says, For I do not want you unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under a cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them. And the rock was who? Christ.

34:26Nevertheless, with most of them, God Was not well pleased, for they laid low in the wilderness. Verse 6. Now, here it is, these things happened as an example for us. For who? For the church, for us. Here's why those things happened in the wilderness. So that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. That we wouldn't lust after the things of the world that don't bring what God promises. Don't do that, he said. That's why they went through what they went through, so that we could know not to do the same. Verse 7. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink, and they stood up to play. Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and 23,000 fell in the same day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble, gripe, complain, moan, groan, weep, as some of them did. They were destroyed by the destroyer. Here it is, verse 11. Here's how it applies to us. Now these things happened to them as an example. As an example. And they were written. Here's why it's written in the old, here's why Numbers 13 is written. They were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall, that he does not fall. Then he says in verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful.

36:01Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape so that you'll be able to endure it. Why did these things happen? Why did they believe the report that they believed? Why did they wander in the wilderness? Because God wanted them to serve as an example for us today, that we would not give in to the temptations of the world, that we would not give in to the world's philosophies and put them above the Bible.

36:29It's a perfect example for our instructions that we don't fall prey to the malicious lies of the world. We have our Bible, we have our text, we know what God says. Refuse to participate in gossip is a great message here. Don't allow the troublesome meddlers to take a foothold in your life. And refuse to participate in hurtful gossip, the lies that people spread, false information about one another. Don't do it. And today, we can see that even thousands of years ago, a deceit-filled world clamors for the attention of God's people. As you're tempted to deny the Lord through your actions, you must be ready to not only proclaim God's word in your own life, but to live your life in accordance with those promises.

37:22To be in the scriptures each and every day. What does God say about a particular issue in your life? It's there. You must give consideration, careful consideration, to God's faithful testimony in your life, of his proven faithfulness in your life to make biblically informed, wise decisions. Why? Because the fears and philosophies of men are at odds with the Scripture. The only way to overcome the temptation of the world is to be informed. To be informed by God's Word means that you have to be in it, studying it, so that you won't doubt his call on your life to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you've been called. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 1.

38:10That's the message of Numbers chapter 13 and 14. These serve as an example for us to trust God and to not give in to the world. That brings us to the end. Let's close in prayer. Father, to you, we're grateful. We're grateful that you've given us this text because, as Paul points out, even in the New Testament, that these things happen to serve as an example for us that we don't need to doubt your call in our lives.

38:42If we don't understand your call in our lives, then we can be in your word and we can understand as we read and as we pray and as we ask you for your direction. We know that you want us to not give in to temptation. Oh, Lord, they gave in to temptation. They gave in to a wickedness. Could lie. They were afraid of tall people. And yet, there are things that we're afraid of too. And as we look at our lives, we say, God, you have been faithful to us in the past. You have brought us through the most heart-wrenching moments of life. And you've allowed us to go through those things to serve as an example so that when we go through even more difficult trials in the future, we can look back on your testimony in our life. We can say that you have been faithful and you will continue to be faithful. I just simply need to trust.

39:38In that, we thank you for redemption. We thank you for forgiveness. We thank you for your Son who died on the cross for our sins. That if we simply repent and believe, that you will take us to yourself and we can be with you for eternity. I suppose now is as good a time as any to just, in the quietness of your own heart, just talk to the Lord about what he's asking you to go through right now, what you're experiencing in your own life, and just ask him, Lord, how can I trust you in a better, stronger way?

40:38And so it is, Father, we put an end to this Lord's Day, and we say to you once again, we're grateful for what you've taught us. We're grateful for your word, and would you continue to remind us continually of your faithfulness, and so that when we meet tough times, when the world or even ourselves wants us to believe something that's not true about you, that we would flee to you, Father, we would run to you and that your word would continue to guide us. And we thank you in Christ's name. Amen.